Designed to allow the photographer to face two lenses together, via male-to-male couplers, enabling high quality macro images. It will work by reversing a standard lens to the front of a telephoto lens.

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Tim from
Simple and EffectiveI'm a natural history photographer with a special interest in small subjects that are difficult or impossible to observe with the naked eye. I've been using a Nikon D300 and 105mm macro lens for years with great results, but wanted to experiment with magnification beyond 1:1. Given the equipment I already owned, this macro coupler was the cheapest way to do so. I use it (along with a step-down ring) to reverse stack my 35mm lens on the end of my 105mm macro lens. The resulting magnification is very high (I photographed a tick and it virtually filled the frame). Depth of field is basically non-existent past 1:1 magnification, so you'll really need to stop down your primary lens (the stacked lens is left wide open). For the magnification that my lens combination created, I found that f/32 was a good compromise between the benefits of depth of field and the softness due to diffraction. If you stop down this much or more, you'll probably want to apply additional sharpening to counteract the diffraction. Working distance is about an inch, so a tripod, careful focusing, and cable release are indispensible. I find that vignetting was not much of a problem if the stacked lens is focused at infinity and the primary lens is focused at 1:1. As far as the actual coupler, it does its job just fine; it holds two lenses together face-to-face. It's nothing special, but there's nothing wrong with it either. It's small and lightweight enough to keep in your camera bag at all times. I would just advise against tightening it too much, especially when used with other rings; it can be a bit hard to loosen due to minimal surface area.

Date published: 2011-04-03

Rated 5 out of
5 by
kdcphoto.com from
Great product, but be aware of added extension ...5 stars for fit and finish. My typical setup for macro photography is using my NIKKOR 85mm Micro for the main lens and my NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 AFS lens as the reversed lens. For a long time I attached the reversed lens with two strips of gaffers tape which worked fine but did inhibit access to the focus ring on the reversed lens. This reversing ring fixed that problem of course but I noticed an issue with close focusing when using this ring for the first time. It took a few minutes to dawn on me that adding the ring actually added extension between the two lenses which in my case resulted in the closest focusing distance being inside the reversed lens. Overall I measure approximately 6.5mm of added extension with this tube. I can compensate for the added extension by adjusting the focus ring of the reversed lens but its something that serious macro photographers should be aware of.

Date published: 2015-08-27

Rated 1 out of
5 by
James from
Poor construction, not threaded properlyThe threads on one side of the coupler I bought are way out of spec and would not screw more than one turn. The threads on the other side are fine. The net result is a mechanically weak coupling and risky to use.

Date published: 2009-09-07

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Spaphoto from
A great addition to macro photography!I use this to reverse mount a 36mm prime lens onto my 100mm macro lens for added, inexpensive increase in magnification. It would be even better to mount a 24mm prime lens, if I owned one. The quality of the pictures is excellent, but both my macro lens and prime 36mm lens are high quality to begin with. This is sturdy enough to hold the lenses together without any movement, and is a lot of fun to work with.

Date published: 2009-01-05

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Its Snowing from
Really CoolI went Camera - 1.4 extender, 36mm tube, 20mm tube, 12mm tube, 135mm lens, coupler, 50mm lens. I just shot stamens on Alastroemeria. Without the coupler I was shooting whole houseflies with that set up minus the coupler and 134mm lens. Super hard to focus, need a tripod - lots of haloing and not very sharp.

Date published: 2009-11-14

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Saorsa from
face to face coupler is greatI use the coupler to mount an 18-55mm zoom reversed on a 50mm f1.8 series E lens. It makes for a great macro capability. It's a very low cost way to get up close to a subject. Obviously, all the automation of the system is gone but, in a macro environment, that's fine.

Date published: 2008-11-16

Rated 2 out of
5 by
Mark S from
Imperfect ThreadsI'm not sure if its due to poor machining or the finish, but one side of mine didn't mate very well. I'm a bit worried that it will harm the threads on the lens, so may not continue using it.

Date published: 2010-12-29

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Peter Pauer Photography from
works well and quite inexpensiveusing it to join 2 lenses together for macro work, well made but could have used slightly longer/more threads. Would have given it a 5 rating if there were 1 or 2 more threads on each side